Point of Pinchas

...AND HE AROSE FROM AMID THE ASSEMBLY AND TOOK A SPEAR IN HIS HAND...[Pinchas] removed the point and placed it under his garment... (Sanhedrin 82a)

Friday, September 22, 2006

YNet: Shopping, thank G-d: Synagogue opens at IKEA

The purpose of the move: To attract more consumers from the religious haredi sector. A few months ago, IKEA restaurant was turned KosherOrna Yefet

IKEA is continuing its assault on the religious sector in Israel. In the next few days, the company is planning to open a synagogue inside their furniture store in Netanya. The purpose: To attract more shoppers from the religious sector. The company's management said in reaction that IKEA has many religious employees as well as visitors, and it was built to give an answer to their needs.

This move is added to another move that the company has recently done for the religious sector. Nine months ago, the restaurant within the store was the first of their restaurants worldwide to receive a kosher stamp. In addition, a busing service was initiated between the religious city of Bnei Brak to the store in Netanya.

The religious link of the store is owner Matthew Bronfman's partner Shalom Fisher. When the Bronfman family acquired IKEA, they announced they will also cater to the religious crowd.

IKEA-Israel is one of the most profitable stores in the country. During the first half of 2006, sales at IKEA's store have totaled NIS 193 million (USD 45 million), an increase of 8.4 percent compared to 2005. The number of visitors to the store during that time totaled more than a million people.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Watch the Hot New NBN RH 5767 Video!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

YNet: Haredim Convinced: Reincarnated Dog Begs Forgiveness

Meah Shearim residents believe dog arrived at neighborhood to ask for absolution following death of resident early SaturdayYnet

The dog that stirred up Meah Shearim neighborhood: A 95-year-old Meah Shearim resident, Nahman David Dovinski, is said to have been “a righteous man, a worker of God, waiting every day, every minute, for redemption. He was really not of this world.”

Upon returning from the funeral, which took place on Saturday night, Dovinski’s family found an unfamiliar dog sitting on their doorstep. All attempts to remove him failed.

Dovinski’s family took the dog out of the neighborhood, but it insisted and returned again to the same house. From the early hours of the morning, endless attempts were made to expel the dog, but the dog refused to leave the house.

Hundreds accompany dog’s evacuation (Photo: Reuben)

During the attempts at convincing the dog to leave, a neighborhood rabbi arrived at the house and instructed that the dog be served a Shabbat meal, in hopes that this would convince the dog to leave.

Only after the dog was told, “you are forgiven, you are forgiven, you are forgiven,” did it agree to taste the food it was served.

Residents and neighbors began wondering what the meaning of this strange event was, and turned to Rabbi Meir Brandsdorfer, who is considered one of the senior rabbis in the haredi congregation, for answers.

Rabbi Brandsdorfer recommended reciting Psalms and Mishnas. The rabbi himself left the home of the deceased at around 5 a.m. Sunday and headed towards the Mount of Olives in order to say Kaddish on Dovinski’s grave.

Neighborhood residents and family members report that the dog willingly left the house during the Kaddish.

A crew from Jerusalem municipality’s veterinary services arrived at the scene and picked up the dog, as hundreds of residents from Meah Shearim and other neighborhoods watched and escorted the vehicle that evacuated the dog.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Priceless Video Clip

"I have no Torah or wisdom to my credit. The only distinction I can apply to myself is that I had the merit, by G-d's grace, of living my life in the Holy City of Jerusalem."-Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld ZT"L

"(We must) declare to the entire world its magnificence and beauty, its holiness and grandeur. If only we could express, with what may appear to us to be great exaggerations, even a ten-thousandth of the desirability of the beloved land, and the splendorous light of its Torah, and the superior light of its wisdom and prophecy!"-Rabbi Avraham Yitzchok HaKohen Kook ZT"L

Both of these torah giants along with Sefardi Chief Rabbi Rav Yaakov Meir ZT"L and Rav Yitzchak Shlomo Blau ZT"L appear in a priceless clip taken in May 1918. Also in the clip are Winston Churchill, General Allenby and Dr. Jacob DeHaan along with their wives. Notice how these gedolim pick and choose very carefully whose hands they shake.

The first clip seems to be higher resolution but the second clip is longer.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

"It Shall Come To Pass:" 7 NBN Summer 2006 Flights (Pics!)

It shall come to pass: when you come to the land which G-d, your L-rd, gives you as an inheritance, you shall occupy it and settle in it. (Deuteronomy 26:1)

"The phrase, 'you shall occupy it and settle within,' implies, a specific period of time. It took the Jews seven years to conquer Israel and seven years to divide it among the people. The Jews were not obligated to bring bikkurim until this period was completed...

..."Here we see how important the unity on the Jewish people is. Even though many individuals and even whole tribes were "settled" in their respective properties in Eretz Yisrael, they could not bring bikkurim until their fellow Jews have reached a similar state. A Jew cannot feel at home and settled until every one of his fellow Jews has also been able to establish his own household...

..."'It shall come to pass' refers to a state of joy. There is no greater happiness than the settlement of Eretz Yisrael (Or HaChayim).

[Text taken from Me'am Lo'ez p.110-111]

UPDATE 5/10/07:To vote for this post in the 2007 JIBs Awards click here.